TEXAS PANHANDLE

Hundreds of wildfires have broken out this spring. More than a dozen areas are under voluntary or mandatory water use restrictions, and more than 200 Texas counties have been designated as crop disaster areas.

She will cover the Panhandle and South Plains through Report for America. She previously reported for Texas Tech Public Media.

The storied Mesa Vista ranch north of Amarillo recently hit the market for $170 million. It includes an airport, golf course, a pub and more features.

The Texas Panhandle city's Museum of Art celebrates its 50th year while the Hoodoo Mural Festival revives downtown

OSHA has issued 21 notices of unsafe working conditions related to the handling of...

Ongoing La Niña conditions have brought warm, dry weather and deepened drought conditions across the state.

The National Weather Service said there have been 13 tornado reports in the Plains states, scattered through eastern Nebraska and Iowa.

Traces of Texas’ Throwback Thursday: Cowboys on Turkey Track RanchThe iconic Turkey Track Ranch located just north of Amarillo recently went up for sale. The ranch was established in 1878 when Richard E. McNalty arrived in the Texas Panhandle from Colorado with a herd of cattle bearing a brand he called Turkey Track. The land was also the site of the First Battle of Adobe Walls in 1864 and the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. For the low, low price of $200 million, you can purchase 80,000 acres of pure Texas to gallivant around on. This photo, taken on the Turkey Track Ranch by noted cowboy photographer Erwin E. Smith in 1906, shows cowboys crossing the Wichita River.

In the Texas Panhandle, a huge family-owned ranch officially hits the real estate market this week. “It is simply a one of one, and possibly the last of the great ones.”

In the hinterland of the Texas Panhandle, the tiny town of Lipscomb has managed to hold on to a way of life that has largely disappeared across the country.

It was the start of a steamy Friday two Augusts ago when Jason Whisler settled in for a working breakfast at the Coffee Ranch restaurant in the Texas Panhandle city of Borger. Borger's computer system had been hacked. Across Texas, similar scenes played out in nearly two dozen communities hit by a cyberattack officials ultimately tied to a Russia-based criminal syndicate.

In the third part of our spring day drives series, we’re heading to the Texas High Plains and places like Lubbock, Amarillo, and Earth.

The nation’s second-largest canyon, Palo Duro remains almost completely hidden until you reach its rim, where the high plains of the Texas Panhandle drop away, revealing dramatic, caprock formations.

Sarah M. Vasquez for The Texas TribuneEnough people to pack the bleachers at Faith Christians football stadium in Grapevine. By the state's official count, the coronavirus pandemic has now killed 2,029 people in Texas, a toll experts agree is an undercount. Connecticut, a state with one-eighth of Texas population, is mourning twice as many known fatalities. Most Texans died where most Texans live, state data show. The state health department has collected only limited data about them, reporting demographic information for just 664 lost Texans.

The Devils Rope Museum and its plain-spoken founder, Delbert Trew, tell those stories and a whole lot more. Joseph Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois, introduced barbed wire to the world in 1874 with a design that could be mass-produced in a factory. When barbed wire was introduced, it was very vicious and it caused lots of injuries to cattle, horses, and people. City people, he says, have little appreciation for how barbed wire civilized the Great Plains and the western United States. Somebody said, Hey, if barbed wire can do this for cattle, think of what else it could do.Ingenuity, technology, industry, and geography are all part of the barbed wire story, it turns out.

Greg Abbott touted it as an example of what can be accomplished when state and federal resources are brought to bear on the pandemic. In Moore County, located north of Amarillo, workers at a JBS slaughterhouse tested positive in large numbers for the coronavirus. "Amarillo has gone through the challenge of facing all three of those hot spots overlapping," Abbott said. Amarillo is home to a Tyson Foods beef plant where all of its more than 3,500 employees were tested after a sharp rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the area. "Part of our strategy is to enable people to get back to work while co-existing with COVID-19."

More than 700 new coronavirus cases were reported in the Amarillo region Saturday, as results from targeted testing at meatpacking plants came in. The Texas Panhandle, where a workforce of Hispanics and immigrants power several meatpacking plants, is home to the highest rates of infection in the state. Potter County reported 618 new cases on Saturday bringing its total to 2,080, while Randall County reported 116 new cases for a total of 593. In total, the three counties accounted for 738 of the 1,801 new cases reported on Saturday. Across the country, the coronavirus has spread easily in meatpacking plants, where workers typically stand shoulder to shoulder on fast-moving butchering lines.

Your first time in Canyon, you’ll be forgiven for wondering where this Panhandle community of about 15,000 gets its name. He moved into Palo Duro Canyon Estates, a small residential development overlooking the canyon south of State Highway 217. Keep an eye on the clock, though, because you’ll want to return to Doves Rest and the canyon rim by sunset. Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle. At the state park, an $8 entrance fee gives access to gorgeous picnic areas and about 50 miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails.

AMARILLO, Texas (CNN) - Heavy snow fell in parts of the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, causing near whiteout conditions in Amarillo, according to the National Weather Service. Residents posted videos of the rare October snow storm on social media that show their fall decorations and pumpkins covered in white flakes. The preliminary snow reports show that 4 inches of snow fell five miles west of Amarillo, according to the NWS. People weren't the only ones going outside and enjoying the rare storm; a pup named Maggie ran around her backyard in Amarillo and dug her nose in the fresh snowfall. The Panhandle will continue to get snow throughout the evening, but it should wind down by midnight, according to Ward.

BUSHLAND, Texas -- A school district in the Texas Panhandle will begin drug testing students as young as 12 years old who are interested in playing sports or participating in other extracurricular offerings.The Bushland Independent School District, near Amarillo, says students in grades seven through 12 will be tested beginning with the resumption of classes next month. They must pass the drug test before they're approved for extracurricular activities.The testing also applies for students who want to park on school property. They must pass an additional drug test before they can participate in activities again.Students must sign a consent form before they're eligible to participate in any extracurricular activities such as football, band or chess.You can read the full drug testing policy in its entirety by going to the Bushland ISD website and clicking the "District Information" link at the top of the page. The full letter to students and their parents, along with the consent form, can be found here Bushland ISD Superintendent Chris Wigington told KVII the district does not have a drug problem but the school board wants to be "proactive" and ensure that students "have a drug-free environment. "He notes that administrators don't want to hurt a student's academic standing so there will be no suspensions for a positive test result.